The Mayor's Office e-mail data's in good hands

The Nagin administration can stop fretting about the safety of its e-mail files. The city data is in a secure place now: the U.S. attorney's office.

Since City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields claimed that the city's lawsuit against the Louisisana Technology Council was simply to "protect the public's information, " we can all stop worrying. No doubt U.S. Attorney Jim Letten will keep the public's information very safe.

No need to worry about anything being lost or accidentally deleted.

The public can feel secure in that knowledge. Isn't that a relief?

Now, whether there is anything in that data that could cause problems for the Nagin administration remains to be seen. But, if so, we're guessing the public would like to know about that, too.

From outside City Hall, it's hard to see how LTC did anything wrong. It appears that the company, which the city hired to try to recapture missing e-mail sent by Mayor Nagin, promptly turned over the data in its possession when subpoenaed by the federal government.

Mark Lewis, LTC chief executive, refutes the city's claim that there was a breach of contract. Neither LTC nor any of its subcontractors kept a copy of any of the city data, he said.

The only thing that wasn't returned to the city, he said, was the info that the company was required to turn over to federal agents when subpoenaed July 22 and July 27.

Who could blame LTC for that? When federal authorities present you with a subpoena, you really ought to cooperate.

"The LTC has not violated our non-disclosure agreement with the city as we have not shared the content of any of the data recovered to anyone. In addition, we have never admitted that our analysis and recovery has been flawed in any way, " Mr. Lewis said in a statement Wednesday. "The LTC still stands firmly behind the results contained in our July 6 report to the city, which speaks for itself."

City technology director Harrison Boyd has said that LTC violated its contract by calling a press conference July 1 and disclosing its belief that a high-placed insider would have had to purposefully remove the mayor's missing e-mails. It's understandable that the Nagin administration wouldn't have been thrilled by those revelations.

The public, on the other hand, probably found LTC's openness refreshing.